Just wondering with all the talk of the details of the Witholding Allowance (whether you agree with all of them or not) if anyone has heard or seen anywhere I may have missed as of right now, how exactly it is being enforced at events.
Please don’t discuss any specific flaws or advantages of the Witholding Allowance as you see them here (there are other threads for that), just post if you have seen if there is any official word as to how it is being enforced.
Thanks!
Here’s a reference to Bill’s Blog on the subject, just for more cannon fodder.
http://frcdirector.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-are-you-bringing-to-regional.html
What I’ve heard for the DC regional is that they want everyone to put their parts in a separate box to be weighed, and that they will check and weigh everyone’s allowance. The details may change though, and the squeemish part is that we’ll have to wait until next Thursday to see for sure.
I’ll have to look at the link when I get home as blogspot webpages are blocked at work (a seperate irritating issue of the season alltogether for understanding or even getting official news from FIRST which I’m sure affects more folks than myself) but thank you Jesse for the link.
I’m sure I’ll be back posting about this later when I can read the blog.
If someone can post what is on that site here that would be great btw.
That’s funny because the DC RD just told me that they were just going to trust that the teams aren’t bringing in the kitchen sink…
Plus, the procedure on Bill’s Blog isn’t the load in procedure we are being told to use at the DC regional (sent last week).
At the CT Regional we will be weighing any team that does in fact bring in a kitchen sink.
At the Chesapeake Regional, we will be weighing any team that brings in a kitchen sink (or other major appliances) or an extra robot…
[Although an exception might be made as I see 303 is coming to the Yard this year, and I remember they had a pretty impressive Fridge 
…]
Any team bringing a kitchen sink, any major appliance or a spare robot to New Jersey or Pittsburgh will be weighed. Now I just have to find a scale big enough to fit a team…
Seriously! I expect to follow what I understand to be the intent of <R36> (allow teams more time to work with their control systems) and just look out for anyone trying to bring in greater than half a robot. Or a kitchen sink.
Anne, Mike, Jenny & Pete, I thank you very much so for being light-hearted about this situation! 
I’m not sure if the 4 of you have read some of the comments in the other Witholding Allowance threads, but it seemed to have gotten a lot of people (not necessarily whole teams) a bit riled up. (Big surprise right?? :rolleyes: )
Anyways, my hope is that every regional is as flexible as you all are being here & that teams don’t get too worked up about some of the (relatively) crazy details in this clause this year & are understanding as well.
Also, if the 4 of you have any influence in regards to FIRST releasing some info on this in a future pre-regional event E-Mail blast about this situation to “calm the masses” so to speak, I’m sure a lot of people would be very grateful!
Thanks again!
Sincerely
-Elgin Clock
We will be bringing in a large 32lb assembly. We plan on taking it straight to the inspectors to have it weighed and OK’d.
As long as teams are proactive like this I don’t see a big problem occurring.
I dont know. It seems to me to be a fairly difficult rule to enforce, just as it always has been. Everyone knows there have been dishonest teams in the past who’ve brought parts built after build season into a competition and gotten away with it. Allowing 40lbs just makes their past practices closer to being legal, but if they’re over the 40lbs, they’ll still find a way to hide it. I think its a rule that is likely to go relatively unenforced.
This is a grounded, calm approach to problem solving. Thanks for the input, Indy.
Dear jane,please don’t go to the battery thread. You seem to be a very level headed ,nice person. Right now is not the time for ," rules are rules". I don’t want to see you get lambasted. We need to vent.
John,
Vent all you want. If I get lambasted, I can take it. Thank you for your concern, though. 
P.S. - sorry John, I had already posted in one of the threads before reading your kind warning. I just noticed that.
Oh, and if that kitchen sink is COTS, are you still going to weigh it?
If I washed my hands in it is it still considered COTS? I packed it back up!;)
I stand corrected. Teams may bring in as many unmodified kitchen sinks and major appliances as they can fit in their pit stalls.
This thread is going down the drain…
Glad to be coming back down again Perhaps this is the year 303 brings down another kitchen appliance named robot!? :ahh:
When Bill’s Blog mentioned ‘we will be checking’, I had a flashback to Thursday am in Houston in 2002. There was one poor Astrodome employee who opened the doors, then turned an faced a huge crowd of FIRSTer’s, all with toolboxes and assorted spare parts in their hands. He asked me to open my toolbox, announcing that they had to search everyone for knives and other ‘sharp objects’. I gently explained to him that everyone was carrying something that had a pointy end to it, but assured him we were all harmless. I laughed all the way to the pits.
When I read the blog…I thought…‘not again’. In Israel we will have armed guards, but they will not be looking for kitchen sinks.
Nice 
Can we fit a hot tub in the pit area?